People, Scrum, XP, Lean, Complexity, Creativity, Fun

October 2014 Blog Posts

“The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster.”
Gerald M. Weinberg
Modern leadership is servant, modern managers are like hosts that receive and entertain guests.
Team members have ownership and autonomy in the way, in the ‘how’, they pursue the value they are asked to create.
When team members face difficulties, they raise obstacles to management attention. And managers act on the obstacles that bubble up from the team. This follows the principle of transparency and feedback.
Are managers ready to hear about all these problems? Continue...

“The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster.”
Gerald M. Weinberg
Modern managers want to encourage teams and team members to solve problems on their own, they ask them to come prepared with solutions, not just problems.
Sometime this goes too far, and I hear managers full of good intentions saying “Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions!”
Team members don’t bring to their managers obstacles that they know how to fix and believe they can solve.
They approach their managers with obstacles that:
they don’t know how to solve
...

“The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster.”
Gerald M. Weinberg
Here are few examples of what managers can do.
For #1, managers can coach or mentor the team member to help her/him figure out possible solutions.
For #2, managers can figure out what kind of help team member needs to implement the solution, then show her/him how to do it, then pair with her/him to solve it, then just observe her/him solving it.
For #3, managers can support...

“The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster.”
Gerald M. Weinberg
A good manager finds the time for listening to and helping team members, and finds time to invest in team members’ growth.
A good team member doesn’t forget to provide regular updates, seeks regular feedback, comes with solutions when possible, and makes it clear what kind of help she/he expects from the manager.
References:
- The Agile Blindside by Esther Derby
- Host leadership